CINDY DAY: Where were you in '72?

Janine Angela Musolino Sanford's family photo album preserves memories of the May 10, 1972, snow storm that hit Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador. Her grandparents Harold and Iris Johnson, as well as her great-grandfather Gerald A. Hatter shovelling snow in the Hydrostone neighborhood of Halifax, N.S. - Submitted

On Monday, I warned you of frost. On Tuesday, I mentioned that there might be a few flurries behind Friday’s cold front. Many of you reacted to that one with a chorus of: “flurries Cindy! It’s May!”

Cindy Day

Well any year we get through May with only flurries is a good year, but it doesn’t happen very often. May has been known to serve up a few beauties.

If you’re old enough to remember 1972 or someone in your family wisely saved photos, you know all about May 1972. In fact, it was May 10, this very date, that year when a powerful May storm barreled across the region, setting all kinds of snowfall records in Atlantic Canada.

Janine Angela Musolino Sanford reached out to me via Facebook and posted the amazing photo montage you see. It’s is a picture from her family photo album. In it, you’ll find her grandparents Harold and Iris Johnson and, in the bottom left photo, her great-grandfather Gerald A. Hatter shovelling snow on May 10, 1972, at the corner of Isleville Street and Stairs Place in the Hydrostone neighborhood of Halifax, N.S.

Halifax came out on top – of the snow bank, perhaps – with a whopping 27 cm of snow. Sydney followed closely behind with 25 cm. Parts of the Annapolis Valley were shovelling out from under nearly 20 cm that day. It also snowed across Newfoundland and Labrador, but the totals were not quite as impressive: 14 cm for St John’s and 12 cm for Corner Brook. Still more than most would expect for May 10! Over on Prince Edward Island, residents were spared — there was not even enough snow to whiten the ground.

IN THE NEWS. May 10 1972. Do you remember the snow storm of '72? The Chronicle Herald